Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-09-23


ing weak men like ourselves, when 10!
they showed their pinions before they
LETT, and We found out that they we're
angels unawares.
Another reward comes in the good
wishes and prayers of our guests. do
not think ones house ever gets over hav-
ing had good man or woman abide there.
George Whitefeld used to scratch on the
window of the room where he was enter
tanned passage of Scripture, and in one
case, after he left, the whole household
was converted by the reading Of that pass
age on the window pane. The woman of
wall for Elisha, and ell the ages have
heard the glorious consequences. On O
cold. stormy winter night my father enter
tanned Trueman Osborne, the evangelist,
and through I'LL eternity will thank God
that Irueman Osborne stopped at our
house. How many of our guests have
brought for us coincidence and sympathy
and help! There is q legend told Of st.
Sebald, that in his Christian rounds he
used to stop for entertainment at the house
OF poor cartwright. Coming there one
day, he found the cartwright and his
St. sebald ordered the man to 20 and
break the icicles from the side Of the
house and bring them in, and the icicles
were brought into the house and thrown
on the hearth, and they began to blaze
Immediately. and the freezing family
gathered around and were warmed by
them. That was legend; but how often
have our guests come in to gather up the
cold, freezing sorrows of our life, kindling
them into illumination and warmth and
good cheer. He who opens his house to
Christian hospitality turns those who are
GfrQnnnro int fNSn h.,
and there will be great changes in you,
and there will be great change in them.
Some day you will be sitting in loneliness,
watching bereavement, and you will get
letter in q strange handwriting, and
you will look at the postoffice
mark and say: "Why, I don't
know anybody living in that
city; and you will break the envelope, and
there you will read the story of thanks for
your Christian generosity long years be-
fore, and how they have heard afar off of
your trouble. And the letter will be so
full of kindly "reminiscences and Christian
to cover up all the deep gashes of your
soul. When We take people into our
houses as Christian guests, we take them
into our sympathies forever. In bort,
Holland, soldier with sword at his side
stopped at house, desiring lodging and
shelter. The woman of the house at first
refused admittance, saying that the men
OF the house were not at home; but when
he showed his credentials that he had been
honorably discharged from the army, he
was admitted and tarried during the night.
In the night time there was knocking at
the front door, and two rufians broke in to
they come over the doorsill than the armed
guest, who had primed his piece and
charged it with slugs, met them, and tell
ing the woman to stand back, am happy
to say, dropped the two assaulting desper-
ADDE'S dead at his feet. Well, now there
are no bandits prowling around to destroy
our houses; but how often it is that we
find those that have been our guests be-
come our defenders. We give them
shelter first, and then afterward in the
conflicts of life they fought for our repu-
tation, they fought for our property, they
fought for our soul.
Another reward that comes from Chris
tian hospitality is in the assurance that we
ours. In the upturnings of this life who
knows in what city or what land We may
be thrown, and how much we may need an
open door? There may come no such
crisis to us, but our children may be
thrown into some such strait. He who is
in Christian manner hospitable has q
free pass through all Christendom. It may
be that you will have been dead fifty years
before any such stress shall come upon
one OF your descendants; but do you not
suppose that God can remember fifty years?
and the knuckle Of the grandchild will be
heard against the door of some stranger,
and that door will open, and it will be
talked over in Heaven, and it will be said:
"That mans grandfather, fifty years ago,
gave shelter to stranger, and now q
strangers door is open for a grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining
and being entertained, they take piece of
lead and cut it in two, and the host takes
one-half of the piece of lead and the guest
takes the other half as they part. These
two pieces of lead are handed down from
generation to generation, and from family
to family, and after while, perhaps one
with this one piece Of lead and find the
other family with the corresponding piece
of lead, and no sooner is the tally COM
pleted than the old hospitality is aroused
and eternal friendship pledged. So the
memory of Christian hospitality will 60
down from generation to generation, and
flom family to family, and the tally will
never be lost, neither in this world nor the
world to come.
Mark this: The day will come when we
will all be turned out of doors-without
any exception-bare foot, bare head, no
water in the canteen, no bread in the
haversack, and we :,ill go in that way into
the future world. nd wonder if eternal
Inequalities will open before us, and if
we will be received into everlasting habita-
tations? Francis Frescobald was rich
Italian, and he was very merciful and very
hospitable. One day an Englishman by
the name of Thomas Cromwell appeared at
his door asking for shelter and aims, which
were cheerfully rendered. Frescebald
afterward lost all his property, became
very poor, and wandered up into England,
and one day he saw procession passing,
and 10! it was the Lord Chancellor of En-
gland, and 10! the Lord Chancellor of En-
gland was Thomas Cromwell, the very man
whom he had once befriended down in
Italy. The Lord Chancellor at the first
glance of Frescobald recognized him and
dismounted from his carriage, threw his
arms around him and embraced him, paid
his debts, invited him to his house and
said: "Here are ten pieces of money to
pay for the bread you gave me, and here
are ten pieces of money to provide for the
horse you loaned me, and here are four
bags, in each of which are 400 ducats.
Take them and be WE'LL" So it will
be at last with us. If we entertain Christ
in the noroop of HE 1ioci,,loo thic